Red cinnabar is a relatively soft gemstone that is made from sulphur and the poisonous metal mercury.

Most “cinnabar” jewelry on the market today is imitation, made of either plastic or dyed and stabilized howlite.

History

Cinnabar gets Its name from the Persian word zinjifrah meaning “dragon's blood.”

Red Lacquer

In ancient times cinnabar was mined in the south of Spain and was brought along trade routes to India and China, where it was highly valued and used to make red lacquer.

Lipstick & Gladiators

Unaware of cinnabar's extreme toxicity, Romans used cinnabar to paint their gladiators and statues of their emperors and heroes. Roman women used lipstick made of the poisonous mineral.

Vermillion

In the ancient metropolis of Pompeii wealthy residents used red ochre and expensive cinnabar to decorate the inside of their homes. Cinnabar has been used for hundreds of years to make a kind of red paint called vermillion.

Alchemy

In Medieval times monks made cinnabar in their alchemy workshops. They blended liquid mercury, which they called quicksilver, and powdered sulphur to make a cinnabar powder. The cinnabar powder was then used to make red paint. A 7th century alchemy manuscript describes how to make the cinnabar powder:

Take two parts quicksilver and one part active sulphur and mix them together in a flask with a narrow neck. Heat this over a flame without letting smoke develop. Thus one shall obtain cinnabar, which should then be thoroughly washed.

Folklore

The Elephant and the Dragon

Cinnabar, which is red in color, is made from mercury, which is silver in color, and sulphur, which is gold in color. The ancient Greek naturalist Pliny described cinnabar as the resulting product from a fight between a silver elephant and a golden dragon. In the end both the elephant and dragon died, and as their blood mingled cinnabar was formed.